The Premier of Queensland has agreed to subsidise eight expensive new toys – electric cars.
See: statements.qld.gov.au/
Greens are hailing this as the spear-point of their green energy revolution.
But the Premier’s green cars will run on . . . HYDRO-CARBONS.
Electric cars need large batteries, which have to be recharged.
Maybe the Premier has a large subsidised solar panel on the roof of her garage, so that when she comes home, she can recharge the big battery?
But the sun does not shine at night, so the car will have to rely on grid-power from coal.
She could of course get taxpayers to buy an expensive battery for the garage which gets charged when the sun shines and then re-charges the green car at night – all very expensive to install and replace. And during and after every cloudy spell, it would still need to run on coal.
This cartoon may be used freely providing the author, Steve Hunter, and the source is acknowledged: www.carbon-sense.com
Batteries also go flat at inconvenient times and on long trips, so the Premier has wisely chosen a hybrid car – it has a spare petrol engine under the bonnet too, making the whole thing very complicated and expensive.
Most green toys rely on reliable energy for backup. But this one needs two carbon fuel backups - petrol and coal. Rather a black shade of green?
Electric cars have benefits for big cities. Petrol and diesel engines degrade mega-cities with noise and use up oxygen; and some old engines may emit air pollutants such as soot, smoke, carbon monoxide, NOX, SOX and unburnt hydrocarbons. Electric cars can be quiet, clean city cars. But they fail for the long hauls of the outback . . . not really a Queensland “Outlander” – more like a Brisbane “Citylander”.
The Premier should promote Queensland industry by highlighting the fact that her big city toys are not only clean and quiet, but also run mainly on nature’s best solar energy battery – ancient sunshine stored in organic, energy-dense Queensland coal.
Viv Forbes,
Rosewood, Qld, Australia
Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition, has spent his life working in exploration, mining, farming, infrastructure, financial analysis and political commentary. He has worked for government departments, private companies and now works as a private contractor and farmer.
Viv has also been a guest writer for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Business Queensland and mining newspapers. He was awarded the “Australian Adam Smith Award for Services to the Free Society” in 1988, and has written widely on political, technical and economic subjects.
